[development] load node globally

[Daniel F. Kudwien]

node_load() is statically cached when certain conditions are met:

http://api.drupal.org/api/function/node_load/6

For D6, you can avoid node_load() in many situations by re-using the path
argument:

http://api.drupal.org/api/function/menu_get_object/6

For D7, node_load() will be cached:

http://drupal.org/node/111127

Views avoids the use of node_load() in many cases (but not all) by directly
querying only the required data in a single query.

sun

> -----Original Message-----
> From: development-bounces at drupal.org 
> [mailto:development-bounces at drupal.org] On Behalf Of Dave Fletcher
> Sent: Thursday, January 15, 2009 10:58 PM
> To: development at drupal.org
> Subject: Re: [development] load node globally
> 
> > Since I see so many node loads in block visibility and in 
> modules that 
> > do $node manipulations and so forth, which would make me think that 
> > sometimes many node loads might occur on some pages and 
> tens perhaps 
> > when you add contributed modules on that, I was wondering 
> why not just 
> > load $node globally on node/<num>/* pages like we do with $user to 
> > avoid any extra node_loads?
> 
> I think it's pretty rare that the same node gets loaded 
> twice. Well, one example might be a sidebar block with a view 
> of full nodes or teasers in it. If one of the nodes was the 
> URL target, it would be loaded once for the page, once for 
> the sidebar.
> 
> And how would views take advantage of it? node_load is just 
> smart enough not to load the node twice? I think there's 
> caching modules (e.g. the node cache feature of memcached) 
> that do this type of thing.
> I'd look into cache modules if you're worried about multiple 
> loads. Oh and of course, the built-in page cache for anon 
> visitors makes this a non-issue if the bulk of your traffic is anon.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> --fletch
>